i loved, who i loved, and who made us proud and who would want us not to be ignored in the south carolina primary as we discuss this national race. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next weekend at 5:00 p.m. eastern. like us on facebook.com/politics' nation, and follow us on twitte twitter @politicsnation. up next, "meet the press" with chuck todd. this sunday, sanders surging. >> we have now won the nevada caucus. >> bernie sanders dominates nevada more than doubling his nearest competitor. >> no campaign has the grassroots movement like we do. which is another reason why we're going to win this election. >> joe biden appears headed for his best showing. >> i think we're in a position now to move out of the way that we haven't been until this moment. >> with democrats divided, the

question now, can anyone stop sanders? my guests this morning jim clyburn of south carolina, where joe biden will be making a do-or-die stand. plus -- are you trying to say i'm dumb? >> fear and loathing in las vegas. >> none of them accused me of doing anything other than except maybe they didn't like a joke i told. >> the candidates democrats saw as the answer to sanders flat lines in wednesday's debate. >> i hope you heard what his defense was, i have been nice to some women. >> can michael bloomberg's money buy his way out of that performance? and president trump dismisses as democratic propaganda and intelligence report from his own administration that the russians are again trying to help him win. >> it's disinformation. that's the only thing they are good at. >> as a result he dismisses his intelligence chief. i'll talk to marc short of the white house. joining me for insight and analysis are hugh hewitt, kimberly atkins, senior

washington news correspondent for wbur in boston, dan pfeiffer, co host of the pod save america podcast, and betsy woodruff swan of the daily beast. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. >> good sunday morning. if there was any question about who the democratic front-runner is, bernie sanders has put that to rest. he won a smashing victory in the nevada caucuses, lapping the competition, with more votes still to be counted, here's where the nevada caucus stands right now, with sanders more than doubling the competition. this powerful showing in a diverse state will give sanders huge momentum as the race moves to south carolina on saturday, and then to the super tuesday states in just nine days. sanders was already thinking ahead last night in the super tuesday state of texas. >> in nevada, we have just put together a multi-generational,

multi-racial coalition, which is going to not only win in nevada. it's going to sweep this country. >> sanders, indeed, won a smashing across the board victory. according to our entrance poll, he won among men and women, college graduates and noncollege graduates. liberals and moderates/conservatives, union and nonunion members. people who decided early and people who decided late. in short, sanders crushed it. in doing so, he may have crushed the hopes of the democratic establishment desperate to stop him. enthusiasm among sanders supporters is matched by trepidation among other democrats who fears sanders will not only lose to president trump but will take down the house majority and any chance of winning back the senate as well. while the two sides of the party disagree on the merits of a sanders nomination, they agree on this, bernie sanders is now the odds-on favorite to be the democratic nominee. joining me now is jon ralston, editor of the nevada independent, our go-to guy for

nevada politics. since we don't have all the vote in, we begin with you. look, let's start with how big sanders' win was. where y want to put up key groups. he was powered by young groups, hispanic voters and those who favor medicare for all, but i want to focus specifically on latino voeders because he made huge inroads there. >> he didn't just make huge inroads there, remember, the culinary union, which is the largest force in the democratic party and is made up of at least half hispanics was very anti-bernie in its messaging. they didn't endorse anybody. bernie sanders went into all of those culinary union strongholds in the casinos. and he won almost every one, showing that he went beyond their messaging, made his pitch about what you saw him say in

texas to multiracial coalition, and he won in most of the casinos, chuck, where you have all of these hispanic workers. >> what does that say, either about the power of the union leadership, or was this a reminder why they decided not to endorse essentially against sanders, another candidate, for fear their endorsement might be hollow? >> yeah, i think it's both, actually, chuck. i think there's always, not always, but often a disconnect between what union leadership does and how the rank and file feel. it's not just with the culinary union. and bernie sanders' campaign had already made incursions into the culinary union. but the culinary union leaders are not dumb. they saw what was happening in the state. they had nice words for joe biden, but they saw what happened in new hampshire. they saw his campaign wasn't as organized as bernie sanders'

was. they were not going to get onboard the titanic after it hit the iceberg. >> ouch. i'm going to put up from our entrance poll among moderate and conservative voters in nevada, and here, sanders and biden essentially were tied among moderates and conservatives. a lot of the nonwhite voters didn't call themselves liberal, called themselves moderate conservative, and they still ended up supporting bernie sanders. >> listen, i think that moderates and slightly to the right of center democrats are still flailing about, right, chuck? they don't know which of these non-bernie candidates to choose, so that splits up that vote and that allows bernie sanders to even do well in that cohort. is it going to be mayor pete, is it going to be elizabeth warren even amy klobuchar. they all split up that vote. that's part of the reason beyond his phenomenal organization and messaging to young people that bernie sanders is now the clear front-runner in the race.

>> joe biden said he -- joe biden's campaign is calling their performance a strong second place finish. not all the votes are counted. is it possible buttigieg passes him for second place? >> well, let me tell you, chuck. i think it's too close to call right now. i don't know what the democratic party is doing. i gave them the benefit of the doubt. this isn't a little league game where it looks like someone is so far ahead, you stop playing. we really don't know. i tell you this, my reporter megan has obtained a letter from the buttigieg campaign. they have sent a letter to the state democratic party alleging all kinds of errors and inconsistencies, which of course, you would expect in a caucus, but they want to position themselves, obviously, as having finished in second place so they can say it's them and bernie because that's how it's been in the first three states. listen, are you going to brag? are you joe biden or pete buttigieg, going to brag about

finishing more than two to one to bernie sanders. that rings hollow to most human beings. >> i don't think this is 1984 where gary hart can lose and declare victory as he did one time. jon ralston, thanks for coming on. much appreciate it. >> as i said before, it's getting very late very early for democrats who want to stop bernie sanders from running away with the nomination, with a national primary day just nine days away. >> we are going to win across the country. >> sanders now leads in national polls by double digits. and is ahead in super tuesday states like california. which will award 415 pledged delegates on march 3rd. and he only narrowly trailed biden in a new south carolina poll. >> i think we got a shot to win in south carolina, which i would not have told you a month ago. >> with the rise of sanders, his opponents are beginning to take him on. >> senator sanders believes in an inflexible idealogical revolution that leaves out most

democrats. not to mention most americans. >> some believe that the way to beat donald trump is to be just as polarizing. >> i ain't a socialist, i'm a democrat. >> bernie says we're going to keep the filibuster. i say mitch mcconnell is not going to get a vito over what we want to do. >> we may very well be on the way to nominating someone who cannot win in november. >> buttigieg is on the air in south carolina attacking sanders by name. >> bernie sanders' medicare for all would completely eliminate private insurance, forcing 150 million americans off their current plans. >> sanders is already being eagerly named by congressional republicans in campaign ads like this one from arizona senator marthae mcsally. >> kelly says he would support bernie sanders. $60 trillion in new spending, taxpayer funded health care for illegal immigrants. >> i love the idea of a sanders candidacy. it gets me excited about the down ballot. i fell like we would have a pretty good shot at the house. >> still in wednesday's debate,

sanders' opponents left him largely unscathed. attacking michael bloomberg instead. >> mr. mayor, are you willing to release all of those women from the nondisclosure agreements. >> he has stop and frisk, throwing close to 5 million young black men up against the wall. >> it's not just about how much money you've got. it's what you stand for. >> now with the prospect that sanders could build an insurmountable delegate lead on super tuesday, all of the opponents to sanders say no candidate should get the nomination without a majority of delegates. >> you can't have somebody with 32% of the vote think they're going to be the nominee. what about the other 68%? if you're going to be the nominee, play by the rules. get a majority. >> and joining me now is the democratic congressman from south carolina, jim clyburn. he's also the house majority whip. congressman clyburn, welcome back to "meet the press," sir. >> thank you for having me. >> bernie sanders, democratic front-runner at this point.

do you accept the fact that he's right now the odds-on favorite to be the democratic nominee? >> well, i would accept the fact that he's the front-runner. i want south carolina to have its say before i talk about who would be the odds-on favorite. >> let's talk about south carolina. i want to throw up an entrance poll graphic of african-american voters in nevada, and just because african-american voters vote one way in nevada doesn't mean they won't vote another way. biden at 39%, warren at 10%. it felt like a reasonable south carolina poll going in with a week to go. is that how you would see the spread right now in south carolina? >> i don't know if i have spent enough time trying to figure out exactly who has how much. but all these candidates will get some african-american votes. no question about that. i do believe, however, that if

we were having the election tomorrow, that joe biden would have more of the vote. how much more, i don't know yet. i think the debate on tuesday night will have an impact. and i think that some activity after that might have an impact as well. >> are you concerned -- look, joe biden believes you're going to endorse him. a lot of people believe you want to endorse joe biden. you have said you know who you're going to vote for at this point, but you want to wait until after the debate. but has joe biden done enough to assuage any concerns in south carolina about his electability yet? >> well, i think that what has happened here is that in the first two contests, people from south carolina, like around the country, were looking at this. and i have heard from a lot of people that they thought that joe biden could have done more

to engage on doing the debates. thought he could have done more to say why he would be deserving. and so i think he suffered from that because he didn't do enough. but i do believe that a lot of that had to do with other candidates. i think that at that time, he had, what, 17 or 18 people on the stage. kamala harris, i think, unnerved him a little bit with her question. so all of this changes when you only have six people. so the dynamics on tuesday night will be totally different from what they were on those two contests. >> what did you learn from the last debate? do you think candidates spent too much time on bloomberg or too much time attacking each other? what was your takeaway from the debate? >> i think they spent too much

time on bloomberg. i think that there's enough going on out there to leave it up to you guys to talk about his record. but i thought that elizabeth warren did herself a lot of good. she demonstrated to the viewing public that she has tenacity, and she was not unwilling to engage. she did herself a lot of good. >> i think at one point, you and others believed that the winner of the south carolina primary would be the democratic nominee. do you believe that now? >> well, i still believe that south carolina's record -- you know, i'm a history guy. and you know i'm informed about history. and on both sides of the coin. i remember john mccain coming in to south carolina, large unfavorite. he left south carolina in bad

shape. we had barack obama to win south carolina and be launched all the way to the presidency. hillary clinton won south carolina and became the odds-on favorite, and she won the nomination. so south carolina has the demographic that lends itself well to democratic voters especially. so i think that if you can win south carolina decisively, i think you'll set the stage for super tuesday. and you will become the odds-on favorite. >> let me ask you about the likelihood of sanders as the nominee. one of your democratic colleagues in the state of south carolina, joe cunningham, appears to be quite nuvs about this. he said south carolinians don't want socialism. we want to know how you're going to get things done and how you're going to pay for them. bernie's proposal to raise taxes on everyone is not something everyone wants and not something i would ever support. this is one of those trump districts you guys successfully

flipped in 20 quanti18. do you concur with your colleague? >> well, i concur with his conclusions. i don't know that all that should apply to bernie sanders. i have worked very closely with bernie sanders on many issues. community health centers, we have been working on that together for 15 years. and so i do believe that community health centers, as well as other initiatives in rural america, i think that bernie sanders brings a lot to the table for people to consider. so i know why he's nervous like that. anybody who refers to themselves as a democratic socialist, that word has always had really dire consequences throughout south carolina. >> is there a chance you decide not to endorse publicly before the primary? i say that because maybe you're not comfortable with where a

certain candidacy is headed. >> there's no chance that i won't endorse. i will endorse wednesday morning. i have just gotten there. i just believe it would be -- would not be good for me to hold myself out as a person who has been in south carolina politics for as long as i have been and not say to people who have been asking me -- >> who are you going to support. >> who i'm for, so i'm going to tell everybody who i'm going to vote for. i'm just not going to do it today. >> jim clyburn, democratic house majority whip, democratic -- the dean of the democratic delegation down there in south carolina. thanks for coming on and sharing your views. >> when we come back, looking ahead to south carolina and super tuesday. do skeptical democrats have just nine days to come up with a plan to stop bernie sanders? panel is next. you drive safely. but allstate helps you. with drivewise.

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welcome back.

our panel is back. hugh hewitt. kimberly atkins, betsy woodruff swan, and dan pfeiffer. author of the new book, untrumping america, a plan to make america a democracy again. welcome, everybody. mr. phifer, i'll start with you since you have been on a winning presidential campaign in the past. this is where we are with bernie sanders right now. it's very interesting. among all voters, a majority of voters have reservations about somebody over the age of 75, somebody who had a recent heart attack, and somebody who is a self-described socialist. among democratic voters, they're not concerned. 44% say the same about something over 75, 42% about somebody who is a socialist. what does this tell you about bernie sanders' future as the nominee? >> those polls also show that bernie sanders is beating donald

trump in almost every head-to-head matchup, so what it tells me is bernie sanders absolutely can win this election. he comes to it with a specific set of potential vulnerabilities, primarily around labeling something unpopulary, and we talk about his weakness and strengths. he has the most powerful economic message in the field to date, the only person who has demstraighted an ability to compete financially with trump, and a really impressive organization. he can win. will he win depends on how well he navigates the vulnerabilities. >> james carville had a strong opinion about the rise of bernie sanders last night. >> if you want to vote for bernie sanders because you feel good about his program, because you don't like the banks and wall street or you don't like pharmaceuticals, that's completely legitimate, i understand that. if you're voting for him because you think he'll win the election because he'll val galvanize

heretoforesleepy parts of the e eelectorate, you're a fool. >> what is crazy tubt is how lonely of a voice he is. our colleagues at the daily beast have talked to democratic operatives and fund-raisers say part of the reason there isn't a coordinated machine behind carville, not organization on the money side and the voter mobilization side, is they worry if they try to do something like this, bernie would say we have a lot of evidence to support the argument that wall street was working with the establishment to try to damage his movement. they worry an organized effort to take sanders down would backfire and help him. >> it's stunning. >> it is. >> they all have the same opinion, and they're all paralyzed. >> but the establishment of the democratic party isn't who is going to the polls and voting, and one thing that nevada has shown is that bernie sanders at least from 2016, is growing his base. he is expanding. he is reaching out to latino

voters, and that has an important impact when it comes to momentum. remember, in 2008, when barack obama won in iowa, what did that do? that told voters in south carolina, hey, there's a guy who can win an election, and white people are voting for him too. now it's telling voters in south carolina and other states, people of color, they got a majority of latino voters. this is somebody we should take a look at. he'sened finding a way to break the ceiling we have heard about for years now. >> four years ago at this time, you were arguing donald trump doesn't have this in the bag. he can be stopped. now you're looking at this, this looks like the democrats are watching what happened to your side four years ago. >> i watched the debate you did this week and i thought it was a replay of the debates four years ago. and james carville, who i was with along with you on election night, is living a dream that doesn't exist anymore that the democratic establishment can stop bernie sanders. the atlantic compared the

democratic establishment unfairly with the muppet show, saying the muppet show is more organized than the democratic establishment, and i think that's unfair to the muppet show. if i wanted to untrumpify, using dan's book title, i would go to pete buttigieg because he's the opposite. when you get to south carolina, he's the representative of america's small cities and big towns. that's where he wins. nevada has two cities, they don't have a lot of small cities. you look at columbia, at greenville, at hilton head, i think pete buttigieg could surprise and close the gap in south carolina. >> but is it too late? it's so weird to say that, we have only been through three states, but my god, putting super tuesday, what they did in four days, this calendar is a disaster for the democratic party if they want to try to slow sanders down. >> it's not too late, but it's getting pretty close to too late. bernie sanders is building up a tremendous amount of momentum with no clear alternative to stop him, and michael bloombe bloomberg's presence is helping

make it more likely than bernie sanders is going to win because it's further dividing, because i don't consider it bernie sanders on the moderate side. it's bernie and not bernie, because elizabeth warren is in the not bernie camp, but the vote is so split. i saw the south carolina poll where tom steyer is getting double digits. >> bernie could win south carolina. >> the irony that two billionaires are going to conspire to elect a democratic socialist as the democratic nominee is something for the history books. >> a lot of this has to do with michael bloomberg as well. one of the things, betsy, we talk about all of the lack of preparation by michael bloomberg at the debate. i want to isolate the closing statement. you have one minute, you know you're going to have one minute. number one, he didn't use his entire minute, but this is an excerpt. >> look, this is a management job. and donald trump's not a manager. this is a job where you have to build teams. the people that we elect, and it's not just the president of the united states, they should

have experience. they should have credentials. they should understand what they're doing and the implications thereof. we shouldn't just say, oh, nice person. gives a good speech. we should say, didn't do the job, and you're out of here. >> betsy, that was -- he had more time. everybody else used -- knew their one minute, had it timed. the elevator pitch. this told me he doesn't have a message. >> to say it's a management job for a party that historically has been fueled by labor is a little bit of a head scratcher. you think someone might have said maybe don't use the m word when you're making a case to these voters. in addition to that, bloomberg has very much been insulated from having to answer hard questions for this entire process. he's barely sitting down for any interviews with reporters. as a reporter, i'm a little biased, perhaps, but candidates who sit down for tough, challenging interviews do better in the debates because they're used to being outside their comfort zone. bloomberg was totally in his comfort zone to the moment that was most important. >> that's absolutely right.

and look, voters in this election more than others are wanting to be heard. these are people who, the exit polls have shown consistently, they want to hear the candidates talk about health care and how difficult it is. they want to hear them say how difficult it is, they can't send their kids to the schools they want. that's the kind of inspiration that is helping fuel candidates like bernie sanders. and for bloomberg to come in and say hey, i'm a tough guy with a lot of money and i'm going to beat trump, doesn't seem -- >> the movie "cats" got better reviews. that was maybe the worst debate performance since '76. bernie can still lose this. i saw de blasio attacking buttigieg as smug. i saw amy klobuchar attacking pete buttigieg as being -- >> dan pfeiffer, i'm going to give you the last word because i'm going to use your book. you said something here that some could argue is a case for bernie sanders. here's what you write. the republican base responds to

fear and democrats respond to hope. we need to inspire nonvoters to become voters. republicans ned to fire up their base while keeping everyone from voting via cynicism or suppression. of all the candidates right now, isn't bernie sanders the one running on a message to do something, and it sounds hopeful to his folks? >> i think all the candidates on stage have the capacity to execute that message, but it is without a doubt that bernie sanders is doing the best job of it right now. he has a strong message that inspires people. it creates enthusiasm. and it is a message that can work in the election if he can navigate people coming after him. >> if nobody drops out before super tuesday, is it even possible to stop bernie sanders? >> i do not believe it is. >> when we come back, new evidence that the russians are again working to help president trump. marc short of the white house joins me next. (vo) for a nasty cold,

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welcome back. last week we learned that u.s. intelligence officials concluded that the russians are once again

trying to interfere in the presidential election. presumably to help president trump. trump falsely dismissed this as democratic disinformation. >> the do-nothing democrats, they said today that putin wants to be sure that trump gets elected. here we go again. i was told it was happening. i was told a week ago, you know, they're trying to start a rumor. it's disinformation. >> yet the president dismissed his intelligence chief involved in that briefing, joseph mcguire. bernie sanders also confirmed intel officials told his campaign a month ago that russia is trying to help him, too. >> here's the message. to russia. stay out of american elections. >> joining me now, representing the white house, is vice president pence's chief of staff, marc short. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks for having me back. >> just a basic question, does the predbelieve russia is trying to interfere in the 2020 election? >> i think russia and other nations have consistently tried to interfere in the elections.

the question was an assertion that russia was intentionally trying to help donald trump. that's different than foreign nations looking to undermine america's democracy. they always try to do that. >> he called it a disinformation campaign, the president himself. he believes his intel officials are passing on disinformation to him? >> no, chuck. what he believes is that the people leading the house intelligence committee, particularly chairman schiff, intentionally distort information. and leak information that is false. >> this information didn't come from them, though. this information came from the intel officials. >> no, chuck, i was in the very briefing the president received. there has not been an assertion that russia is trying to benefit donald trump. >> forget donald trump. what i don't understand is, why isn't the president concerned about russian interference. >> concerned. how about the media covering the fact in 2018 when donald trump was president, we had midterm elections that went off without a hitch. in 2016, which there was an interfeens, it was under the obama regime.

in 2018, susan rice told her team to stand down, that's what they testified, the head of cybersecurity said we were told to stand down when raising concerns about russian interference. we continue to talk about what's happening with donald trump when in fact, we have enhanced security in elections. elections are safer than they were. >> the acting chief of staff, mick mulvaney, said kirstjen nielsen was told she could not bring up efforts to deter election interference, particularly when it came to russia, because it set the president off. are officials even allowed to bring this up to the president? >> of course, i don't know what mick said in that context. i was there this week when officials were bringing it up and talking about it. it's why the president has had the department of homeland security and others work with 1100 municipalities -- >> why did he get rid of joe mcguire. >> he's an american patriot who served with honor and distinction. donald trump hopes he will find

another role in the administration. >> why did he dismiss him? >> march 12th what his endidate. >> you could have nominated him permanently. >> we have an interim director, and the president will come forward with a more permanent director. >> supposingly, he was -- >> chuck -- >> he was never under consideration for a job? >> i never heard anyone hear he was the leading contender. again, admiral kwk choir served with distinction, and the president hopes he will find another role in the administration. >> i want you to respond to something william mcraven wrote. >> in this administration, good men and women don't last long. joe was dismissed for doing his job, overseeing the dissemination of information to officials who needed that information to do their jobs. he's no partisan hack. >> i respect his point of view, but he doesn't know what he's

talking about here. he's not part of the administration. i heard the president interact with mcguire. he's looking to find another role for him inside the administration. >> why can't the president say he wants to deter russia from interfering in the election? his first reaction is it's made up. it's democrat disinformation. >> he does want to stop foreign interference in our elections. >> he never said it. >> he's taking multiple steps and i think you're going to see, he got a briefing, and he said i think we should have a briefing at the white house in the next couple weeks so we can tell the american people how our voting is safer. he wants to do that and will do that in the next couple weeks. >> does he believe the russians are interfering in the election to help bernie sanders? >> i think the reality is it's hard to suggest when this administration has taken steps time and again to sanction russia harder than any president since reagan, he took steps that killed russian mercenaries on the battlefield, that russia would prefer to have donald trump than bernie sanders who

honeymooned in the soviet union. >> the president, though, continues to use a russian talking point when it comes to the 2016 interference, when he brings up things like crowdstrike in that phone call, so on one hand, the administration sanctions russia. the president himself using the bully pulpit lets russia off the hook. >> the president has taken multiple steps to make sure that our elections are safer. he's taken many steps to sanction russians. those are not things that this administration does. they have to go to the president's desk. he signs off on those. he's taken more steps to make sure that america is safer from russian interference. >> let me ask you this. by him saying they're trying to start a rumor, it's disinformation, house does it do anything to deter the russians? how does it not say russia, come on in. i'm going to call it disinformation. >> his frustration when midlevel people go up in front of the house and intelligence committee before they brief the president, they brief chairman schiff, they

know information is going to get leaked out and distorted. >> what you're saying is because he believes it could get leaked he's not going to essentially inform the legislative branch of what's happening. >> that's not what i said. we have been continuing to inform the legislative branch. his concern is if you do it in a way, in front of chairman schiff, who has continued to lie to the american people time and again on multiple occasions, particularly about the president's relationship with russia and continued to report a russian hoax conspiracy, yes, that's frustrating to the president. >> frustrating enough to then mislead the country in. >> he's not, chuck. look at what the administration has continued to do. as i just told you, the 2018 midterm elections went off without a hitch. we're working with 1100 municipalities across the country. we have continued to sanction and sign laws that stiffen penalties for election interference. >> again, i go back to the president's words. how does that -- what does that do to enhance security? doesn't it undermine the thing you're telling me you're doing. >> we're continuing to take the steps. the president's frustration,

again, remains more with adam schiff and those in the house intelligence committee who he thinks will not take the information honestly and will not represent it. >> so was mr. mcguire dismissed because they informed the house intelligence committee of this information? >> no, no, no. >> had he not informed the intell januainte intelligence committee, would we be here? for it was people beneath him. >> allowing that briefing to happen, that was something the president did not like? >> it was not a matter of allowing it to happen. it was the oversight. what is the process to make sure the people testifying to those at senior levels who understand the political gamesmanship -- >> do you believe mr. mcguire was being a -- >> i think the president himself has said i want to find another place he can serve in our administration. >> okay, but you keep saying somehow briefing a bipartisan group of house lawmakers, the intel committee, which is a responsibility of the

administration. >> absolutely it is. >> but the president said that was a mistake. >> the president's frustration was he wasn't briefed before they were briefed. you had midlevel people going into a very partisan environment that's supposed to be behind closed doors. supposed to be classified information. yet it still was leaked out to the american people. >> okay. but who leaked it out? it looks like it came from the administration. >> no, no. because the president's concern was exactly to say look, if you do that, they're going to say that the russians are trying to help donald trump, which is exactly what the leak said. >> i want you to clarify this. there was reporting the new personnel director of the west wing is conducting a review of all agencies and departments to make sure all political appointees are loyal to president trump. can you explain what the freeze is about? >> there are thousands of civil servants who serve in the executive branch. of those, a small percentage of political appointees. every administration would want to make sure people in political appointment roles are people who support the president. >> how do they prove this?

>> i don't know that they prove this. they're looking and say we want to make sure that political appointees support the president. >> i understand cabinet secretaries aren't allowed to make their own deputies. that the white house has to -- >> the way it works in republican and democrat administrations alike is cabinet secretaries should be working with white house personnel office together to make those decisions. that's the way it's going to continue to work. >> last question. the president had this post-nevada tweet. looks like crazy bernie is doing well in the great state of nevada. congratulations, bernie, and don't let them take it away from you. the president is rooting on bernie sanders for the presidential nomination? >> i don't know that he's rooting for bernie sanders. i think he's pointing out the irony that a lot of democrats complain about the electorate process, but they have a process where the person who is winning doesn't get the most votes. >> i think the president is comfortable with any of the candidates in the field. he has a tremendous record on

the economy, on national security. >> it's notable he never attacks bernie. he attacks bloomberg, biden. he never attacks bernie. >> trust me, this president is pretty comfortable with that entire field. >> marc short, thanks for coming on. >> when we come back, exactly how fire proof is joe biden's african-american firewall in south carolina? (whistling) (whistling) i need all the breaks, that i can get. at liberty butchumal- cut. liberty biberty- cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. only pay for what you need.

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welcome back. data download time. joe biden has been counting on strong support from african-american voters to power his candidacy, but a new poll shows bernie sanders is closing that gap. almost 70% of black voters say they're comfortable or enthusiastic about joe biden while only 28% say they have reservations or are uncomfortable with his candidacy. that's a net positive score of 41 points, but sanders is right behind him and gaining. he's got a net positive score of 35 points. there are only small differences in the types of black voters who support both candidates. both biden and sanders do slightly better with women than men. they're even among younger voters while biden has a

ten-point edge with those african-american voters over the age of 50. biden gets more support among black voters without a college degree, while they're even among those who have graduated from college. the big question, of course, is how they do against president trump in november. among these african-american voters, biden and sanders both beat president trump. that's right in line with hillary clinton's numbers in 2016. still, biden has been counting on african-american voters who like others saw him as the most electable democrat, to be his firewall in south carolina. but with bisanders beating bide that firewall may be crumbling. >> when we come back, end game. is president trump draining the swamp or pardoning it?

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president trum back now with end game. and they concluded russia is again meddling on his behalf and on behalf of bernie sanders. >> nobody said it. i read where russia is helping bernie sanders. nobody said that to me at all. they leaked it. adam schiff and his group, they leaked it to the papers. and as usual, they want to investigate adam schiff for leaking that information. >> well, the president making some allegations that are

impossible to fact check and giving his track record, probably a little bit questionable. the president's inability to condemn what russia has done only sparks this conspiracy, doesn't it? >> and by the way, my disclosure. my son is a political appointee, grenell is a friend, they're all friends. outside the cabinet, he is the most anti-russian member of this cabinet. he is as anti-russian -- >> it's not about the administration. you know this. why does his words continue to undermine? >> because i think his general diplomacy is to speak softly and carethy biggest stick, 716 billion in military spending too, be nice to xi in the middle of the coronavirus and be tough on crimea, to ukraine. tough, tough, tough in actions,

soft spoken words. >> cred snbl. >> listen. this is exactly what we've seen from the president in the beginning. he sees it as a personal slight. he is going to push out against that, while simultaneously pushing the narrative that it helps bernie sanders and paying no mind at the fact that is contradictory. and that is what we're seeing moving forward. talking about 2018, there was no interference, there was. most importantly is the intelligence officials. intelligence officialres are alarmed at what is going on and the continuous discrediting by the president of the united states and that's creating long-term problems. >> he attacked mid-level bureaucrat, midlevel staffer. >> that's right. >> those are career professionals. >> and it's notable they're looking at politicals as well. there's this wide-angle lens of people the president doesn't

trust. that being said the news regarding russian interference is not as surprising as it might sound. facebook announced it has pulled down 50 instagram accounts linked to a notorious troll farm active that pushed content pro trump and pro bernie sanders. that's all open source. finding that it was basically recycling through this material. and what's really important and important to keep in mind going to 2020 is these accounts prioritized operational security. secrecy and anonymity over growing viral. that means the kremlin as the the ability to be much more sophisticated going to this election. >> bernie sanders informed us that he got this a month ago. by the way i think the intelligence committee decided to inform bernie sanders yesterday. it's hard to imagine the president wasn't informed. that's the oddity of this all.

this is tricky politics in the democratic primary, is it not >> and i think we should be clear they're not trying to help bernie sanders be president. they're trying to give trump the opponent he wants. they helped trump to divide the democratic party. nobody thinks russia is trying to make bernie sanders president. the way i think this plays out more broadly is we have a big conversation on how the democrats unify. everything we've talked about since impeachment ended is going to help unify the partedy. because if he's acting this way nine month businessfos before a imagine a second term -- >> july 28, 2019, president trump fires the senate-confirmed director, dan coates. and on the same day, another

person resigned because she was passed over for that acting top job role. then on february 19th, mcguire is ousted by president trump. the next day rick grenell is named acting director. the first shake up was time would the whistle-blower report making its way through the dni. this one is time woud with the report about russian interference. that's nasty circumstantial evidence. >> if you want the person most effective in countering the russian puppetry mooem, you put rick grenell -- >> and he's pretty partisan. >> he came up as a republican lgbtq. so, obviously combative and had to earn his stripes the hard way. burt ifio want an anti-russian person to -- >> i don't know there was evidence mcguire was any softer

on the kremlin than grenell was. and the other question he didn't answer is why there was this rapid snapback from the position and why the president wanted to put grenell in for a couple of weeks. there's no clear word of the added benefit of installing this guy who also has a very deep time and a vocal trump ally into this incredibly sensitive and strategically important intelligence spot. >> i think if somebody is politically connected to get an intel job like this. >> he has no intel experience. i know there's nothing more exhausting of the imagine if president obama did "x." game. but imagine if president obama put in a political operative with a history of pushing political conspiracies. his head would have exploded.

he did not put him in charge of the dni. >> a guy who has ten years of being an intel experience. i think that is a complete fabrication of the beltway establishment that hates grenell because he is combattant. >> to be a loyalist. >> not a loyalist . the most anti-russian person in the administration. >> i remember when william barr was put in the room to be the grown up in justice. and we've seen the news surrounding him this wreak. >> i have to leave the conversation there. that's all we have today. thank you watching. we'll be back two days before super tuesday because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." what's important to you?

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